by David Archer
The rest of the week was busy, as Noah spent eight hours each day with Gary. Sarah resumed her sessions with Doc Parker, Neil spent each day with Molly, and Marco practiced his reversion to his Cajun roots.
In the evenings, it wasn’t uncommon for them all to get together at Noah’s place. Since he lived out in the country with no nearby neighbors except for Neil, they all felt comfortable hanging out there. Marco and Renée showed up around dinnertime each evening, and Neil was usually already there. Sarah made dinner a couple of times, Noah fired up the grill twice, and Marco surprised them once with a huge pan of what he called “bodacious gumbo.” Noah, Sarah, and Renée all agreed it was delicious, but Neil hadn’t made it that evening.
He had mumbled something earlier about having a date, but there was so much going on that no one had actually paid a lot of attention. It wasn’t until he came in late that night that they noticed Jenny’s car following him and parking next to the Hummer at the trailer.
“Somet’ing going on dere,” Marco said. “Looking like de boy done go sweet on dat girl.”
“It’ll be okay,” Sarah said. “I already warned Jenny that if she hurts him, she’s dead.”
Marco looked at the expression on her face for a long moment, then nodded solemnly. “Dat be enough,” he said.
Jenny’s car was still there the following morning, as Noah and Sarah each prepared to drive away. As they started out the driveway, she came out of the trailer and waved with a big smile. Both of them waved back and then turned onto the road to head to their respective appointments.
As soon as Noah walked into Gary’s office, the questions began. They continued throughout the day, only pausing as the two men went to lunch, but by three o’clock in the afternoon Gary pronounced Noah ready.
“I haven’t been able to trip you up for the last three days,” he said. “Considering that I know exactly where the weaknesses are in this background, if I can’t do it, then I don’t think anyone can. You have an amazing ability to actually become the character you’re playing, and that blows my mind.”
“Like I told you before,” Noah said, “I’ve been doing this all my life. It was how I survived, so it became a habit.”
“That just makes it even more amazing,” Gary said. He got to his feet and extended a hand. “You’ve got your ID and everything for the mission. Noah, all I can do now is wish you the best of luck, but I think you’ve got this. You literally become Rex Madison, so I don’t think you’re going to have any problem with that part of the job.”
Noah shook hands with him. “Thank you,” he said, and then he turned to leave.
Since it was a little early, Noah swung by R&D and asked to see Wally again. Just like before, Wally hurried out and ushered him back into his office. “Camelot,” he said, “good to see you, good to see you. Listen, I did a little more thinking about your mission. I still think the printed explosives are the way to go, but I came up with a few other little ideas on how you might put them to work.”
“Okay, I’m listening,” Noah said.
“Okay, okay, okay, here’s what I think. We talked about you giving people presents, but what about selling stuff to them? Remember I was talking about guns? If you started trying to give these people guns, they might wonder what was going on, and that started me thinking that they might even wonder if you were giving them things like pens and sunglasses. But what if you weren’t giving them anything? What if you just happened to have some really good deals on stuff they like?”
Noah lowered his eyebrows and cocked his head as he looked at Wally. “I think I see your point,” he said. “Just about everybody likes a good deal, and especially if it’s a bargain price on something they were planning to buy anyway. What you’re suggesting, if I read you right, is that I can take orders for guns or whatever, then just have Neil make them?”
“Actually, no,” Wally said. “I think we need to go ahead and send you one of the smaller printers, rather than the big one I had in mind. Instead, I took the liberty of setting up—well, I had somebody else set it up—it’s a little company that looks like a brokerage; it can get you anything you want. Donnie Jefferson liked the idea, and we put it all together so it looks like it’s owned by a guy that you did time with, somebody you’d be really close to. That way, you can tell people you can get them just about anything they want at real low, bargain-basement prices, and all you gotta do is find out what they want and make a phone call. I’ll put a couple of people on that line who can look up real quick what it would normally cost, and then you can tell those people they can get it for like sixty or seventy or eighty percent off if they go through you. How much you price it to them doesn’t matter—that’s just the way to hook them into wanting it and being willing to go through you to get it. We use the big printers here to produce the items and overnight them to you so you can deliver and collect. It all looks legit, and nobody is wondering why you’re playing Santa Claus all the time.”
Noah was nodding. “Now I know why they call you a genius,” he said. “Wally, this is brilliant. I think you just gave me exactly what I need.” He leaned forward in his chair. “Now, you’ll go ahead and set them up with detonators that will all go off at once, right? No matter what the item is, it will go off when I send the signal?”
“Exactly. No matter what it is or where it is, when you send the signal it goes boom.”
Noah stared at him for a couple of seconds. “This is probably the way we’re going to have to go,” he said, “but it’s bound to mean there’s going to be some collateral damage. There is almost no chance that every one of these people will be alone when that signal goes out, so there’s certain to be casualties other than the targets.” He lowered his eyes and thought for a moment, then looked back up at Wally. “The explosive is extremely powerful, right? What if somebody was wearing like a necklace, with a chain made of this stuff?”
Wally reached inside his shirt collar and pulled out a gold chain with an eagle dangling from it. Each link of the chain was roughly an eighth of an inch in diameter, the loops made of gold-colored wire that was about as thick as a pencil lead.
“A chain like this, made with our product, would completely sever the head from the body,” Wally said with a grin. “I think I see where you’re going. Now, even that could possibly kill someone who was sitting or standing very close, but if they were more than four or five feet away they’d probably survive.” He blinked. “They might be deaf or blind, or have one bastard of a concussion, but I think most people would live through it. Only the person wearing the chain would be certain to die.”
“Okay. And what if I wanted some that wouldn’t explode? What I’m thinking of is maybe coming up with some kind of an emblem for this Morgan Mafia, something that we could put on a chain that everybody would want to wear. What if a guy thought it was so cool he wanted to give one to his wife, his girlfriend? Could you make some that wouldn’t blow up?”
“Of course, of course,” Wally said. “Remember, this stuff is absolutely stable unless it’s hit by our special detonator. That’s the only thing that’s going to create enough of the concentrated heat and the proper chemical reaction that sets it off. You can even burn it in a normal fire without it going boom. The only problem I can see is how you know the guy gives the right one to the wife or girlfriend, and keeps the loaded one for himself.”
“We make two different designs,” Noah said. “Maybe one is a little bigger than the other, something like that. Only actual members of the outfit get to wear the big one, and everybody else has to settle for the little one. We still run the risk that the wrong person might be wearing it when it goes off, but if this outfit is as disciplined and tightly controlled as they say, that’s probably going to be a pretty small risk.”
Wally clapped his hands. “And now who’s the genius? I still wouldn’t rule out selling them other things, though. From what Donnie and Allison have told me, it’s pretty important this mission succeeds, even if there is some collate
ral damage. If one of these people left his necklace at home that day, he’s still pretty certain to have his gun, right? Can’t hurt if they both go off at the same time.”
Noah nodded again. “You’re right,” he said. “I just personally prefer to limit nontarget casualties whenever I can.”
Noah’s phone rang suddenly, and he pulled it out to look at the caller ID display. The call was from Neil, so he answered it quickly. “It’s Noah, go ahead.”
“Neil, here,” Neil said unnecessarily. “Hey, I was messing around with your computer and you got a message about the car you posted online, I guess. I’ve got a number for you.”
The message was a code, telling Noah that there had been a message from the mole. “I’m just leaving R&D,” Noah said. “Text me the number, and I’ll give him a call.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
It took Noah a little more than ten minutes to get out of the high-security area, and then he called up Neil’s text message and tapped the number with his thumb. He heard ringing a moment later, and then the phone was answered by the distorted voice of the mole.
“It’s about damned time,” Noah said. “I did what you want—Mitchell is dead.”
“I’m aware of that,” said the voice. “I have another job for you. When can you get away from your associates for a couple of days?”
Noah thought quickly. He was scheduled to leave for Arkansas the following day, but keeping the mole happy might justify being a day or two late on his arrival there.
“Probably tomorrow,” he said. “I’m supposed to be going out on a mission in a couple of days, but I can shake loose for a little bit. Where would I be going?”
“I have a situation in Texas that needs to be handled by someone with your talents. You will be going to Odessa. Can you manage to get a flight there without anyone knowing it?”
Noah hesitated, trying to give the impression that he was thinking about how to accomplish what the mole wanted. “Yes,” he said after a few seconds. “I have some IDs that no one knows about. Sometimes I just need to get off the reservation for a little while, get off by myself, know what I mean?”
“Excellent. Get to Odessa and call this number again. It won’t be active, but I’ll be notified that you called it. You’ll get a new number by text message immediately after, and we’ll talk then.”
The line went dead, and Noah put his phone back in his pocket. There was no doubt in his mind that the “situation” was going to mean someone was supposed to die. Noah knew that he might have to actually kill the target, since the executive order that established E & E authorized its agents to use lethal force whenever necessary to complete an assigned mission. In this particular case, the mission was to identify the mole. If necessary, Noah would actually carry out an assassination on his orders in order to maintain the fiction that the mole was able to control him.
Somewhere in the background, Noah was aware, Molly and her team of brilliant people were trying to trace the messages from the mole. Unfortunately, he—or she, Noah reminded himself—was particularly adept at blocking every such attempt. Each message through the forum site came from an account that was inactive only seconds after the message was sent, and the IP address always led to a server that turned out to be a dead-end offshoot from the information superhighway. The phone numbers that came in the messages were always dead, basically nothing more than a redirect routine in some obscure third-world telephone company’s computers. Once Noah dialed the number and the conversation ended, that number would vanish and almost certainly would never be active again, or else it would go back to being some mundane phone number with no connection to the world of espionage.
It occurred to Noah that identifying the mole was probably going to require some sort of initiative on his own part, sooner or later. The only question in his mind was how to go about it. No matter what he tried, there were going to be risks involved.
Sarah was home already, of course, her session with Doc Parker having ended before noon. She came out the door quickly when he parked the car in front of the garage, and threw her arms around him as he stepped out.
“What am I gonna do for the next week?” she asked. “How am I gonna handle you being gone, not being with you, and not even knowing what’s happening to you?”
“I’ll be fine, Sarah,” he said. “I’m going to take it pretty easy at first, not try to push anything. I’m not going to give them any reason to suspect me. By the time you get there, I’ll have us a house and everything. It’ll be okay.”
Sarah nodded, but he could hear the soft sniffles. He held her for a moment longer, and then they started toward the house.
“Hey, lovebirds,” Neil called out. “Want some company?”
“Sure,” Sarah called back. “Come on over. Where’s Jenny?”
A scowl appeared on Neil’s face. “She left this morning,” he said. “Going out on a mission. Am I crazy to get mixed up with her? I mean, what am I going to do if she gets herself killed out there?” He realized instantly what he had just said, and his face registered embarrassment.
Sarah looked at him blankly for a moment, then forced herself to smile and shook her head. “No, you’re not crazy,” she said. “I’ve watched the two of you together this past few days, and I think you each give the other something you need. But, Neil, don’t get too wrapped up in her just yet. I mean, you barely even know her. This might grow into something serious, but take your time. Don’t rush it—I think that might be a mistake.”
Neil just nodded and ducked his head, then followed them into the house. The three of them went to the kitchen and sat around the table, and that’s when Noah looked Neil in the eye.
“You made me a promise,” he said. “I’m going to hold you to it. When I leave tomorrow, I want you to stay over here with Sarah until it’s time for her to come join me. I don’t want her alone.”
Neil nodded and started to speak, but Sarah cut him off.
“Noah! I don’t need a babysitter.”
“I know you don’t,” Noah replied. “But you might need someone to talk to, even just for simple conversation. Aside from that, Neil is going to be posing as your little brother. You two already have a pretty good brother-sister kind of relationship, but I think it might be a good idea to sort of practice it, especially now.”
“I’ll be over here,” Neil said. “Don’t worry. And, Sarah, to be perfectly honest I could use the company probably as much as you could. We can play cards and stuff, keep both of us from doing too much thinking right now.”
Sarah gave him a mildly dirty look, but after a few seconds, she nodded. “I guess so,” she said. “Besides, we both start our training with Gary day after tomorrow. I might need Neil to hold my hand through that; I’ve never been hypnotized. The whole idea kind of makes me nervous.”
“You’ll be fine,” Noah said. “I promise you, it can’t hurt you in any way. You come out of it feeling like you had a good night’s sleep, but all of a sudden you know things you didn’t know before.”
There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, but then Neil broke it. “So, what time do you leave tomorrow?”
“I've got to go out to R&D and pick up some wheels first thing in the morning,” Noah said. “Molly doesn’t think the Corvette fits Rex’s personality, so I’m getting a ’69 Dodge Charger. It’s one of those cars they built with ridiculous horsepower, but Molly believes it will help me fit in down there. After that, I’m supposed to hit the road by noon, but I’m going to have to make a detour. I received contact from the mole and have to fly down to Odessa, Texas, and contact him again from there. He’s got something for me to do there, but I don’t know yet what it is.”
Sarah’s eyes had gone wide as he spoke. “Have you told Allison yet?”
Noah shook his head. “Not yet. I don’t want to do it over the phone, and it might not be smart for me to try to go see her right after getting that call. If he’s got anyone watching, then anybody connected with me that goes to see Alli
son or Mr. Jefferson right after he makes contact with me could give our game away. My plan is to simply pick up the car like I’m supposed to in the morning and send them a message through Wally. I’ll drive to the airport at Kansas City, fly from there to Odessa and take care of whatever he wants there, then fly back and head for Arkansas.”
Sarah was quiet for a moment, but then she nodded. “And you’ll be staying with your sister?” she asked, with emphasis on the last word.
“Yes, but not for long. Gary called and got her on the phone today, so I’ve actually spoken to her now. We played it just the way he wanted, with her grudgingly agreeing to let me come and stay with her for a few days while I look for work and a place of our own. When I get there, I have to check in with the federal probation officer in Fayetteville. His name is Craig Roberts, and he has no idea about what’s really going on. After that, I’m pretty much on my own. The story is that Katie doesn’t want me hanging around her place all the time, so I’ll probably try to find a way to get connected to the Morgan Mafia while I’m looking to rent a house.”
Sarah looked at him for a moment. “Have you seen a picture of her yet?”
Noah reached into his pocket and pulled out a wallet, then flipped through some photos inside until he came to a particular one. He held it out to Sarah, and she looked at it critically for a moment, then seemed to relax. “She looks okay, I guess,” she said. “Kind of chubby.”
“That’s probably why nobody pays a lot of attention to her,” Noah said. “I’ve read that a lot of female undercover agents tend to be moderately overweight. It makes them kind of invisible; nobody thinks they could be someone they need to worry about.”
“I get that,” Sarah said. “I’m just glad I look better than her.”
Noah just looked at her for a couple of seconds, but then the sound of a car turning into the driveway made him rise and look out a window. “Marco and Renée,” he said. “I don’t want to say anything to them about the mole. We’ll keep that between ourselves, until I get a chance to talk to Wally.”
